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Court arrests five more sailors from North Korea who attacked border guards

The court earlier detained 11 fishers who had attacked the border guards

VLADIVOSTOK, October 9. /TASS/. The Nakhodka City Court ruled on Wednesday to place five more North Korean citizens into custody as suspected of attacking officers of the Russian Federal Security Service’s (FSB) Border Service for the Primorsky Region.

The court earlier detained 11 fishers who had attacked the border guards.

"Upon the investigators’ motion, the court ruled to place five North Korean fishers into custody for the period of the preliminary investigation as a measure of pre-trial restriction," a court official told TASS.

According to the FSB, Russian border guards found two North Korean schooners and 11 motorboats that poached in Russia’s exclusive economic zone while patrolling the Kita-Yamato Bank in the Sea of Japan on September 17. The crew of one of the vessels carried out an armed assault on the border guards, in which four border guards were injured. On September 20, the schooners and their crews were taken to the port of Nakhodka and will stay in the harbor for the time being.

A total of 161 North Korean nationals were detained. Some of them were wounded and one was killed. Based on the fact of the attack, a criminal case was launched under Section 317 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer").